Absolutely incredible nonfictional account of unsustainable development, poverty and environmental degradation with its consequences. Perfect for a curious reader, as it is for an aspiring academic.

Let me start by saying that "Mill Town" was right up my alley; I'm really interested in sustainable development, economics and the study of poverty, so to me, this was as much of a case study as a fascinating read. In this book, the author tells the story of her rural paper mill hometown in Maine, in which life basically revolved around the mill, including her own family's life. However, during the 100+ years of operation, the paper mill significantly contributed to the environmental degradation, which also heavily impacted public health; in addition, the mill's decline meant a drastic economic decline of the town as well.

Kerri Arsenault is a brilliant storyteller who made me want to know more and more about Mexico, Maine, its people and socioeconomic development. It teaches politicians, economics and citizens a few lessons which we should learn to apply elsewhere. At the same time, it's not a particularly light or easy read, which is something to bear in mind when choosing this book.

As a side note, as I was reading it with my eyeballs, I listened to "Mill Town" on audiobook, which I think was an excellent choice because it is narrated by the author herself. This gives the book an inexplicably special and intimate element - especially when the author is an actually good narrator like Kerri is. I'd highly recommend to use this dual method of reading..

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

MEmoir/ History / Political Treatise... all in one package. I'll be honest, I picked up this book thinking it would be a bit closer to my own history of being in and around a mill town. In my case, the actual mill town was, by my time - roughly when Arsenault was graduating HS - , just a neighborhood of a larger County seat town it was founded just outside of around the same time as the mill Arsenault writes about. I know what it is like to live in such an area and have the mill be such an important aspect of your life, and I was expecting a bit more of an examination of that side of life. Which is NOT what we get here. Instead, we get much more of the specific familial and mill history of Arsenault and this particular mill and its alleged past and current environmental misdeeds. We even get a screed against Nestle along the way, and even a few notes of misandrist feminism. Also quite a bit of heaping of anti-capitalist diatribe, all tied up in Arsenault's own complicated emotions of being someone who cares about her home town, but who it was never enough for. (The exact dichotomy I was hoping would have been explored directly far more than it actually was, fwiw, as that is exactly what I struggle with myself.) Overall, your mileage may vary on this book depending on just how ardent you are in your own political beliefs and just how much they coincide with Arsenault's own, but there was nothing here to really hang a reason on for detracting from the star level of the review, and hence it gets the full 5* even as I disagreed with so much of it and was so heavily disappointed that it didn't go the direction I had hoped. Recommended.

This was an interesting read. Arsenault examines the environmental impact of the paper mill factory that employs most of the people in her rural hometown of Mexico, Maine. Three generations of her family worked at this mill which has been in the community for 100 years. After she moves away she realizes while the mill provided a livelihood for the community it also contributed to the decline of the town. She goes back home to research and uncover through historical archives and scientific reports as well as talking to townspeople and her family about the factory and the impact it had on the town and it's people. I don’t usually read non-fiction but this subject matter was really interesting and thought provoking.
Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Arsenault jumps on the recent bandwagon for this non-fiction/memoir book. There are a lot of books in this vein, discussing small towns and how the primary industry gutted towns and lives. Here, the focus is on environmental concerns. At the heart, this leans much more memoir. Pretty good, but better books that are similar are out there.

In Mill Town, Aresnault weaves together both memoir and environmental treatise which yields a strange, yet interesting reading experience. As she traces the impact of paper mills on the economy and environment of her childhood home in rural Maine, she also explores how the mills impacted her sense of identity and belonging. The reader the journeys with her as that perception shifts during her investigation into the negative impact on the area.